Teacher evaluations: State law survives

A 1971 state law requiring that student performance be part of teacher evaluations was largely ignored by California school districts until 2012, when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the giant Los Angeles Unified School District to begin following the law. James Chalfant acted in a response to a lawsuit filed by parents of some LAUSD students who were upset that incompetent teachers routinely received positive district evaluations.

The ruling prompted speculation that we could see a new era in California of meaningful teacher evaluations and tenure reviews. But that is what would happen in a normal state – not a state in which by far the most powerful political force is the half-million-plus members of the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers.

Which brings us to state Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, a former educator with a tight relationship with the CTA and CFT. On April 1, Block unveiled a revised version of an innocuous school bill he had introduced in February. The new version removed the requirement that student performance be a part of teacher evaluations.

But something odd happened this week. After a U-T editorial writer emailed Block’s staff with pointed questions about how his bill was at odds with the teacher accountability proposals touted by President Barack Obama, we were told he was putting the bill on hold for this year and planning to bring it up in 2014 after further consultations with “stakeholders.”

Is Block finally having the epiphany that Obama, Bill Clinton, Antonio Villaraigosa, Adrian Fenty and a growing number of elected Democrats have had on education reform? Does he finally understand that in the school system, students’ interests should matter more than adult employees’ interests?

We shall see. But at least until 2014, it looks likely to remain the law in California that student performance must be a part of teacher evaluations.

In the Golden State’s union-dominated education debate, this amounts to good news.